Decisions made easy: How to make the best choice!

Decisions made easy: How to make the best choice!

Many people regularly face the challenge of making decisions, be it with everyday personal affairs or with significant life decisions. Clarity about your own wishes and priorities plays a crucial role in this. This knowledge is underlined by Prof. Ralph Hertwig from the Max Planck Institute for Educational Research in Berlin, which suggests two effective methods for decision-making. The first procedure is the exclusion procedure according to aspects, in which an important criterion is defined. For example, when choosing a hotel, you could decide for your vacation that the proximity to the beach is the most important aspect. All hotels that are further than 1,000 meters from the beach are therefore excluded. Characteristic then adds further criteria until there are only a few options left from which you can choose. Weser Kurier can be particularly helpful to structure the decision-making.

The Satisficing method can distinguish two important concepts. The Nobel Prize winner Herbert Simon described the satisficing as a process that examines the way in which individuals or institutions use heuristic solutions to make decisions. Instead of striving for optimal results, decision -makers set a target level that they want to achieve. If the first option fulfills these criteria, it is chosen; If not, the target level is adjusted until a satisfactory solution is found. wikipedia shows that, for example, 97% of the dealers use a form of satisficing by determining their prices according to certain criteria.

This approach has significant implications in various areas of life, not only in the business environment, but also in everyday personal life. Satisficing is often considered advisable, since in certain decision -making situations it can be ecologically rational to deliver better results than to work towards an optimal result. In teams and groups, satisficing can also help with consensus formation by looking for solutions that are acceptable for everyone without looking for the best solution. Examples of satisficing can be found in everyday decisions, for example when sewing a patch: If you choose the first needle that does the job instead of looking for the perfect needle.

psychological aspects of decision -making

decision making is a complex process that includes various psychological factors. Emotions, cognitive distortions, previous experiences and social influences all play a role in how people choose between alternatives. According to the science of Studysmarter , both intuitive and analytical decision-making processes influence our behavior. While fast, emotional reactions are often intuitive, analytical approaches are based on a systematic analysis of the available information.

The brain areas active during the decision -making process, such as the prefrontal cortex for logical thinking and the amygdala for emotional reviews, are crucial for how we make decisions. In the event of stress, these processes can be affected, which also makes decision -making. In order to cope with these challenges, it is recommended to check several options, weigh up advantages and disadvantages and combine both intuitive and analytical approaches.